I've Had It!!!

Thats Nipper the RCA dog, the ones in the photos are old salt and pepper shakers.

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Nipper enjoyed a long association with consumer electronics companies, stretching back to the nineteenth century. In 1898, the dog’s owner, Englishman Francis Barraud, painted Nipper listening to a wind-up phonograph. By a series of twists and turns, a modified version of the painting became the trademark of the Camden, New Jersey-based Victor Talking Machine Company. Its use by RCA dated to 1929, when that company acquired Victor. By 1990, however, future use of the iconic image was in question. Would Thomson embrace a trademark so famously associated with a financially struggling American corporation? In a September, 1990 article in Thomson’s employee newsletter Consumer Electronics News, the company announced a new ad campaign centered on the famous fox terrier. “Nipper is one of the best known corporate symbols in the world,” said Thomson advertising manager Bruce Hutchison. “But bringing Nipper back hasn’t been an easy decision. Every year we’ve wrestled with Nipper’s strengths and weaknesses relative to the RCA brand.”

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Marty Holleran, Thomson Americas Sales and Marketing Executive Vice President, with “Nipper” and “Little Nipper”/”Chipper”, Consumer Electronics News (Indianapolis, IN), September 10, 1990




i have a couple of them but they are fakes, i finally found a real one, a big one, probly 2 feet tall
i was surprised, it was actually hollow and made of fiberglass or something ... it wasn't ceramic
but the price was way more than i was willing
my new pre amp cost the same
 
Musichal, the reflex design essentially feeds back just the demodulated audio to the RF front end; the input tube is pressed into double-duty: it amplifies both the RF and the AF (audio frequencies) at the same time. This gives a large gain without a heterodyne squeal so common to regenerative receivers.
 
Musichal, the reflex design essentially feeds back just the demodulated audio to the RF front end; the input tube is pressed into double-duty: it amplifies both the RF and the AF (audio frequencies) at the same time. This gives a large gain without a heterodyne squeal so common to regenerative receivers.

You got that, @musichal ? ;)
Yeah, me too.
 
Surround is not my thing, and stereo is so... yesterday. Sick of all of it. I want to go back to yesteryear, to a simpler time. A time when choices weren't so plentiful, and everything worked well together. A return to national greatness.

So I had my friend Chad put it all on the curb out front. The Levinson? On the curb. The Klipsch Forte, Monitor Audio Silver 6, dual SVS subs? Waiting for some fool to try to pick them up - bless his/her poor back. Three Polk subs, Sony XDR-F1HD tuner, three Sony 400-disc players full of discs, a Sherwood tube tuner, Emotiva PT-100, Adcom GFA-535, Cambridge Audio, NuForce, ELAC, Pro-Ject, NAD, Onkyo Integra, two or three cheapie class d amps, five pairs of small speakers, and more? On the curb.

Can you spell scroe? Better get here quick.

I no longer need all that junk because my AK friend Sanford12 hooked me up with my dream system:​

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You turn it on, you choose a great am station. What could be simpler?

1948 RCA Victor 8X542
an All-American Five


70 years old and still doin' fine, it is.

Singing whatever comes into my mind while I am in the shower.
 
Singing whatever comes into my mind while I am in the shower.


Yeah, me too. Started in the shower. over the years it spread to the rest of the house, the garage, and yard, too. For my own enjoyment of life, and to the consternation of those around me. Except Christine. She likes it.
 
Looks like your enjoying your radio Hal. Happy to see it in good hands. You may have started something here


This makes me sad. I blew up a working one of these 2 weeks ago with a boneheaded move. Haven't figured what I messed up yet. Keeping my eyes open for a junker with a good chassis.

Does anyone remember a radio station out of Little Rock AK. In the 60's/70's they had a show that came on about midnight called either Beaker or Bleaker Street that played good rock of the day. First time I ever heard All Along the Watchtower. Damn powerful station. We could pick it up in central Illinois. It was wonderful. Like you were getting away with something.

Sure do! That was KAAY AM, I forget the frequency and the name of the DJ. The show was called Bleeker Street and we listened to it a lot in west central IL. I remember tuning in one summer night during my college years while driving home to the Galesburg area from the Quad Cities. He pulled out the new Paul Simon solo album, his first, and played Duncan. The first time I heard that song. The DJ also had a habit of playing the entire side 2 of Blue Oyster Cult's Secret Treaties album.
 
Out of curiosity I googled up the radio station and got the correct info. It's KAAY, 1090 AM. For better than 30 years now it's been a paid Christian programming channel. I misrembered the late show's name, it was Beaker Street, The DJ's name was Clyde Clifford. I would often tune in when working the overnight shift at the water treatment plant in Rock Island in the early 1970's after I graduated from college. It beat all of the available alternatives in the era before boom boxes became readily available. I didn't have an FM radio yet, except for my Sansui receiver back at the apartment, and the FM programming that catered to my taste in music was just starting to appear.
 
My late father in law would have loved this thread. He was born in 1911 and was around for the birth of radio. Though blind, he built his own crystal set and then early tube designs during the 20's and early thirties. He once commented that the legislation creating the FCC was a great step forward, up until that point the available frequencies were a wild west free for all with everybody stepping all over each other's broadcast signals. He was also an accomplished ham radio operator who could bang out morse code with amazing speed.
 
Musichal, the reflex design essentially feeds back just the demodulated audio to the RF front end; the input tube is pressed into double-duty: it amplifies both the RF and the AF (audio frequencies) at the same time. This gives a large gain without a heterodyne squeal so common to regenerative receivers.
Too much more information;
The then-common Browning Drake circuit combined the best possible sensitive reception on a budget with four stages, by placing an RF tuned preamp in front of a regenerative stage, blocking any oscillation squeal back into the antenna while providing a stronger signal the regen detector. Followed by two stages of audio amplification, it could provide exceptional distant station reception from a longwire antenna with enough oomph to share the joy with a horn loudspeaker. Some considered it nearly equal in sensitivity to a contemporary superhet in the hands of a skilled operator. However, the superhet always had the advantage for selectivity/ ajacent signal rejection.
 
The National Metal Toy Company in Malden, Massachusetts entered the emerging "radio craze" market by supplying the specialized parts for the popular Browning Drake circuit. Many National Browning Drake receivers have survived, I found one with an AC hv supply kit built on in a thrift store basement in the early 1960s, along with a 1923-ish period typical three tube regen with deForest tubes and a glorious CA 1924-25 RCA/ Victor radiogram with a two dial catacomb battery receiver inbuilt with a horn driver with a sound diverter valve on the phono horn for the radio speaker. I bought the NBD and deForest, but not the radiogram.
 
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